In a recent inquest, it was heard that Amelia ‘Millie’ Ridout, when undergoing a bone marrow biopsy at Addenbrookes Hospital in June 2022, suffered ‘massive, catastrophic’ internal bleeding and died due to the needle accidentally piercing major blood vessels.

6 year old Millie was undergoing the procedure as she had a suspected blood condition called pancytopenia. During what should have been a minor surgical procedure, which was done under general anaesthetic, the doctor sought to take fluid and samples of bone marrow from Millie’s hip bones. When doing this, the doctor tragically penetrated through the pelvic bone with the needle and pierced the iliac blood vessels.

When doing this, the doctor saw what should have immediately been a warning sign that something was not right, namely a spurt of blood and they asked for assistance from the supervising consultant haematologist. However, instead of stopping the procedure, the consultant haematologist was unconcerned and advised to complete the procedure.

Shortly afterwards, whilst attempting to complete the procedure, Millie went into cardiac arrest and it was quickly established that she was suffering from an internal bleed due to the biopsy. Although she was rushed to emergency surgery to fix the bleed, Millie sadly passed away when the bleeding could not be stopped.

The area Coroner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Elizabeth Gray, has issued a Prevention of Future Deaths report following her review of Millie’s tragic case and has demanded that the NHS guidelines be developed, alongside a standard operating procedure, for the carrying out of Bone Marrow Aspirate (BMA) and trephine biopsy.

Although the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has expressed their sympathies for Millie’s death, saying that ‘The Trust is deeply saddened by Amelia’s death and our deepest sympathies and condolences remain with her family at this extremely difficult time. The Trust continually reviews quality of care and treatment provided to patients and will, of course, reflect on the coroner’s findings with view to continuing to improve this care’, this does not change the loss that has been suffered by Millie’s family.

What happened to Millie shows that, when surgical errors happen during even the most straight forward of procedures, they can have significant consequences. Patients always face an element of risk when undergoing surgery but they are entitled to receive a certain level of care and skill from medical practitioners. Our Medical Negligence team has many years of experience in assisting patients who have suffered injury due to surgical errors and getting them much needed answers as to what happened and why. If you or a loved one has suffered such an injury, please contact us to explore how we may be able to help.